Bar code technology has been in existence since the early 1950s. Retail stores, particularly supermarkets, starting using bar codes on products that contain data that identifies the product to which the bar code is affixed. When the bar code is scanned, the product information, i.e., a product number, is sent to a host database that associates the number with a record in its database that holds information about the product. The required information, i.e., the price, is then transmitted back to the checkout counter.
Radio frequency identification (“RFID”) systems are also generally known in the art and are used in a variety of applications, including automated tracking, identifying and authenticating of items, security systems and managing inventory. A RFID system typically includes one or more readers (also commonly referred to as interrogators) and RFID tags (also commonly referred to as markers or transponders). The RFID reader transmits a radio-frequency carrier signal to the RFID tag. The RFID tag may respond to the carrier signal with a data signal encoded with information stored by the RFID device. RFID readers are typically positioned at locations where it is desired to control or receive information from the RFID tags that are affixed to items, such as goods, assets, documents or livestock. Reader locations may include entry and/or exit points, inventory control points, or transaction terminals.
While barcode and RFID systems provide important information to a retail store, for example, informing the store owner what products are being purchased, the barcode system or the RFID system need not be the exclusive system for determining the identification of products. Certain scenarios dictate that an additional layer of surveillance is desired. For example, camera surveillance might be beneficial in addition to barcode or RFID information in order to protect the unauthorized purchase of items, to evaluate purchasing dynamics such as what products are purchased from which store locations, by whom and when, and to more accurately and more quickly determine the level of items in a store's inventory.
An example of how a wrongdoer might manipulate an existing barcode or RFID system in order to pay less for an expensive item is known in the art as “sweethearting.” In sweethearting, a wrongdoer selects an item, often an expensive item, from a store's shelves and takes the item to the checkout counter (also referred to as the “Point of Sale” or “POS”). The prospective purchaser has a confederate that works for the store at the POS. Instead of scanning the item, which contains a valid RFID tag or barcode that identifies the product and its purchase price, the cashier covers the product's tag and instead sweeps an alternate bar code taped to his or her wrist or even a less expensive product. The alternate bar code identifies a different item that costs less than the item brought to the POS by the wrongdoer. Thus, the wrongdoer ends up paying less for the product. It is desirable to have a system and method which can be used to visually verify that the item brought to the POS for purchase is actually the item being rung up, i.e., entered into the POS system.
Also, while a barcode or RFID system determines when items are being purchased, they often fall short of supplying other information such as when an item was removed from a store's shelves, the type of person that removed the item from the shelf (i.e., sex, age of the purchaser), and how long the purchaser lingered in from of a store's shelf or cart before actually selecting the item. Further, while RFID tags on items in inventory can be quickly scanned to determine how many of a particular item are stored in inventory, the scanning of items only occurs at specific times, e.g., at the end of the day or at the end of the week. Obtaining “real time” information regarding a store's inventory cannot accurately be obtained. In other words, the inventory information is only as accurate as the last RFID system “sweep.”
What is therefore needed is a system and method for correlating video information with RFID product identification information in order to provide a more robust and effective product management, identification and security system.